When we began looking for American regional food in the 1970s, the smoothie was a California thing and a symbol of the elevated nutritional consciousness that sun-worshippers sought. Today it is nearly as common as Coke. The original smoothies, known also as smoothees—made possible by the introduction of the Waring “Miracle Mixer” blender in 1937—combined fruit and juice with ice to make a refreshing, healthful, easily consumable beverage. They remained a novelty until adopted by the mid-twentieth century counterculture, but the hippies’ and health nuts’ once righteous drink has gone the way of granola and so many counterculture icons. While maintaining a vaguely virtuous aura, it has become a big-dollar business in which some of the best-selling smoothies—laden with frozen yogurt and such other nutritionally correct junk as carob instead of chocolate and agave nectar instead of sugar—are as fattening as a Mickey D milk shake. Juice bars and smoothie stores no longer need to stock fruit; the product can be concocted using starter bases and mixes in the form of powder or syrup.